Ducky Cushion 98
keyboard by: Ducky
Photos taken in House by alex
Ducky Cushion 98 Review: Ducky Is Getting It
Ducky is one of the few older brands in the peripheral world that I still look at and genuinely enjoy testing their boards. In fact, their One X Mini is still in my rotation for gaming boards. They are a bit more humble with their approach to products in the keyboard space, and seem to always be up to taking criticism and improving. I love this a lot.
Fast forward to today, they sent over the Cushion 98 for me to take a look at on stream. However, I’ve been using it for close to a month before writing this review.
The Cushion 98 is Ducky’s take on a compact 98% keyboard with actually pretty good silent switches. It gives you the numpad and navigation keys of a full-size while keeping roughly the footprint of a TKL. At $159 to start, it’s also sitting in a pretty interesting part of the market where it goes up against some titans in the pre-built space right now (think NEO)
Full Disclosure and Affiliations
This keyboard was given to me to review and they are letting me keep it. There also are some affiliate links. These links give me kickbacks and allow me to continue making content! All thoughts are my own and Ducky had no hand in editing this or seeing this before it was published. As always transparency matters.
Simple Is Good
The first thing I like about the Cushion 98 is the design. It’s simple.
You’ve got an aluminum top, plastic bottom, wireless connectivity, adjustable feet, and a big Ducky logo on the back. That’s basically it.
I’m glad Ducky didn’t try to make this look like a gaming keyboard. From the top, it’s clean enough that I’d have no problem throwing this on an office desk. My only real complaint is that the case could sit a little higher. The switches are fairly exposed around the edges, and I think hiding them a bit more would make the board look cleaner.
Ducky also decided to use a quick-latch system with magnets, so you don’t have to remove a million screws just to get inside (unlike other brands). It’s straight forward and beats using plastic clips as a shortcut.
Being able to open your keyboard, troubleshoot it, replace parts, or just see what’s going on inside should be the norm. It’s especially nice to see on something that’s clearly aimed at people who aren’t necessarily deep into this rabbit hole of a hobby.
Oh and speaking of that, the battery is also accessible! Rather than being permanently glued down, which is another big plus. It’s secured inside the case rather than being permanently glued down to the aluminum, and it’s possible to get to it if it eventually needs to be replaced.
There is some tape holding it in place, which isn’t my favorite implementation, but it makes sense from a practical perspective and is still much better than making the battery effectively inaccessible.
The Cushion Mount Is Actually Good
The interesting part of this board is the mounting system. At first I was very skeptical about this and thought it would make the keyboard sound dull and feel stiff. I was wrong!
Ducky calls it a Cushion Mount, and it uses these little hollow mounting points that compress when you type. You get a softer typing experience without the board feeling overly flexible. Think Mode’s stack mount but a more refined version of it.
Ducky includes a second set with a different density, but I actually preferred the stock ones over the month I used it. For a pre-built at this price, I was more expecting the standard gaskets or a top mount, but they out did themselves here.
The Keycaps Need Work
This is where Ducky lost me a little. The keycaps aren’t necessarily bad. They’re reasonably thick PBT and the legends are crisp.
However, The typeface feels cheap, some of the legends look slightly off, and I don’t love the heavier treatment font weight on keys like enter and escape. It’s a shame because putting a nicer set of keycaps on this would immediately make the board feel more premium.
Thankfully, that’s an easy fix if you already have keycaps lying around. I really waffled with the idea of this being a subjective thing here, and I do appreciate the quality of the cap itself, but it would absolutely be a factor in my buying decision for a prebuilt.
PCB & Software
The PCB is another area where Ducky has made some good decisions.
You get wireless connectivity, VIA support, and Ducky’s own browser-based software. VIA requires loading the appropriate JSON file, but Ducky does provide that support. Their own software provides essentially the same functionality, although I still prefer the overall experience of VIA despite needing that extra file.
There’s also a surprisingly strong set of gaming features built into the board. Which I guess is cool?
The Cushion 98 has a 1,000 Hz polling rate, a 2,000 Hz scan rate, and built-in SOCD functionality.
Whether you actually need SOCD on a keyboard like this is another question entirely, but I like seeing Ducky include features like this rather than artificially restricting the board to a basic office keyboard.
The general philosophy seems to be work, game, and play, and the hardware definitely supports that idea.
The Switches & Sound (or lack of)
Ducky only offers the Cushion 98 with its new silent switches. Now, if you know me, I am pretty picky with silent switches. Bad ones can feel mushy and sluggish and make me just want more from the switch. Here are my findings:
The linear version is crisp without feeling mushy, and after using this board for a month, they’re probably the biggest reason I enjoyed it so much. If Ducky sold these separately, I’d actually consider buying a set.
The tactile version is ‘ok’, but I didn’t love the bump. It’s pretty shallow and happens right at the top of the keypress, so I kept reaching for the linears instead.
The clear winner here was the linears. I hate to say this, but I just wish the bump was nicer here for the tactiles.
Now let’s talk sound.
It’s a silent stock board so how good can it actually sound right? Well, it sounded surprisingly fun. To be clear, silent switches are very perfectly quiet, and these lean more to almost that of a topre experience, which is great.
I also ended up swapping the silent switches for some Granite linears and the board still sounded relatively quiet and soft. Between the plastic plate, plastic bottom case, and Cushion Mount, this board just isn’t trying to be loud.
I think the stock silent switches are the move. They give the board a surprisingly deep sound for a silent switch, and the softer character of the board works really well with them. The board is clearly designed around this.
Who Is This For?
I think this is probably the most important part of the review. This isn’t really a keyboard for the custom keyboard enthusiast.
This is for someone who just wants a genuinely good keyboard without turning keyboards into a hobby. You can buy it, connect it wirelessly, tweak the layout in VIA or their native webware, and just get on with using it.
But, I actually think it’s especially well suited for the office. It’s relatively light, compact for a board with a numpad, doesn’t scream “gamer,” and still has enough gaming features to make it a perfectly capable keyboard when you get home.
I don’t think it’s my ideal gaming keyboard. The 98% layout still takes up enough horizontal space that, on my smaller desk, I managed to hit my mouse against it a few times. Even though it’s the same size as TKL. I’ve always been a 60% or 65% gaming kind of guy.
But that’s not really what I think this keyboard is primarily for. To me, this is a work-first keyboard that happens to be capable of gaming. And I think that’s a smart position for Ducky.
At around $159 to $169, the Cushion 98 is entering a pretty competitive part of the market. You have options from brands like ROG, Razer, Keychron, and Neo, but I don’t think all of these keyboards are necessarily targeting the exact same buyer.
The Razer option, for example, costs significantly more, and I don’t think the price difference makes much sense unless you’re specifically invested in the Razer ecosystem.
For me, the more interesting comparison is something like the Neo 98. The Neo gives you more of the enthusiast/custom experience, but it’s also heavier. For an office keyboard that you’re potentially moving around, I actually prefer what Ducky has done here. However, for my home office, The Neo 98 is just a better choice for me.
The Cushion 98 is lighter, simpler, and easier to live with. And personally, I think that’s the point of this line up that Ducky is making.
Final Thoughts
The Cushion 98 feels like a board where Ducky took a bunch of feedback from the custom keyboard community and actually applied it without making the keyboard complicated.
It’s simple. It’s easy to open. It has a good mounting system. The switches are surprisingly good. You get wireless, VIA, and some gaming features. Sitting at around $160, I’d take this over a lot of the mainstream competition right now, especially if you want something for work rather than something that’s primarily a gaming keyboard.
There are still a couple things I’d change, mainly the keycaps and the exposed switches.
But honestly, Ducky is getting close. Just give me better keycaps and hide those switches a little more. Then we’re talking!
Until next time. 👋